Facebook Reports Second Quarter 2015 Results

Facebook, Inc. today reported its financial results for theÂ second quarter of 2015, which ended in June. “This was another strong quarter for our community,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “Engagement across our family of apps keeps growing, and we remain focused on improving the quality of our services.”

Facebook said the number of people who use it at least monthly grew 13% to 1.49 billion in the three months to the end of June. The number is equal to half of the estimated three billion people who use the internet worldwide.

Second Quarter 2015 Operational Highlights

Daily Active Users – $968 million on average for June 2015, an increase of 17% year-over-year.

Mobile Daily Active Users – $844 million on average for June 2015, an increase of 29% year-over-year.

Monthly active users – 1.49 billion as of June 30, 2015, an increase of 13% year-over-year.

Facebook shares, which are currently trading at around $97 a share, have risen 24% so far this year, easily beating the 7.9% rise in the Nasdaq over the same period. Facebook said that costs and expenditures for the quarter had surged by 82% to a hefty $2.8bn. As a result, net income fell 9.1% to $719m – equal to 25 cents a share – but the firm said if various expenses were excluded earnings would have been 50 cents a share.

Second Quarter 2015 Other Financial Highlights

Mobile advertising revenue – Mobile advertising revenue represented approximately 76% of advertising revenue for the second quarter of 2015, up from approximately 62% of advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2014.

Capital expenditures – Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2015 were $549 million.

Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities – Cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $14.13 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2015.

Free cash flow – Free cash flow for the second quarter of 2015 was $1.33 billion.

Aquila Launch

Mark also announced the launch of a full-scale aircraft to be known as Aquila, which is part of Internet.org effort. Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time.

“We’ve also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We’ve successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That’s ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away.” said Mark on a Facebook post.Â

“This effort is important because 10% of the world’s population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies.” continued Zuckerberg.

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